O Intermitente
(So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good-bye)

segunda-feira, abril 07, 2003

Entrevista a Colin Powell (via LGF)

Recomendo a leitura desta entrevista de Colin Powell à ZDF. Apesar das tentativas do entrevistador as respostas são directas e clarificadoras das posições da Administração Bush.

QUESTION: From you and from your colleague, Secretary Rumsfeld, came very strong warnings the last couple of days, vis-à-vis Iran and Syria, not to interfere, stay out of Iraq and stop their business of dealing with terrorists and the Iraqi regime. Are they the next ones on the list for --

SECRETARY POWELL: No, there is no list. There is this common perception in Europe that there is this list of enemies and we are going to go down one-by-one and invade them all in some predetermined order. This is not the case. The President is not looking for places to go invade. The President has made it clear that he has many ways of dealing with regimes that, we believe, are not following international standards. So, sometimes political actions are appropriate, economic actions, use of our intelligence assets. Sometimes military force is appropriate. But we are not looking for wars to get into.

It’s fascinating that we are now trying in a multilateral setting to deal with the problem of North Korea and here we are criticized for not acting bilaterally or doing something directly.

And so we have many tools available to us but it does not mean the United States has constantly looking for places to go to war. But is there something wrong with telling a nation such as Syria, or a nation such as Iran, that we know they are developing weapons of mass destruction, that we have evidence against Iran with respect to nuclear weapons. And these are nations that we know – we know, everyone knows – they are supporting terrorist activities. Is it inappropriate for us to call this to their attention and tell these nations they should stop engaging in these kinds of activities? Or should we just put our hands over our eyes and pretend they are not doing such things and not hold them to any kind of account? I think we should speak out when we find nations that are supporting terrorist activities.

posted by Miguel Noronha 10:12 da manhã